Lupin beans

Lupin or Lupini Beans are yellow legume seeds of the lupinus genus plant, most commonly the Lupinus luteus or "Yellow Lupin", and were once a common food of the Mediterranean basin and Latin America. Today they are primarially eaten as a pickled snack food.

nack Food

Lupini Beans are commonly sold in a salty solution in jars (like olives and pickles) and can be eaten by removing the skin and "popping" the seed directly into one's mouth, but can also be eaten with the skin on. Perhaps the best method to enjoy these beans is to "pop" into one's mouth, removing the outer layer by incising with the front teeth, expelling the tough skin, then relishing the fleshy seed.

History and distibution

These legumes were popular with the Romans and they spread their cultivation throughout the Roman Empire. Today, Lupini are most commonly found in Mediterranean countries and their former American colonies, especially in Portugal, Italy, Brazil, as well as Egypt (where it is part of Sham El Nessim holiday meals), Syria, Turkey and in New York City's Spanish Harlem, where it is popularly served with beer. In Portuguese the Lupini Beans are known as "tremoços", as "altramuz" (a name derived from Arabic الترمس) in Spain and Argentina, and in Antalya Province, Turkey it is known as "tirmis".

Native America

The Andean American variety of this bean, Lupinus mutabilis, was a food widespread during the Incan Empire. Lupins were also used by Native Americans in North America, e.g. the Yavapai people.

Varieties of bean

The Andean Lupin, the Mediterranean "L. albus" (White Lupin), "L. angustifolius" (Blue Lupin) [Murcia & Hoyos ( [1998] )] and "Lupinus hirsutus" [Hedrick (1919): 387-388] are only edible after soaking the seeds for some days in salted water [Azcoytia, Carlos: [http://www.historiacocina.com/historia/articulos/altramuces.htm Historia de los altramuces. Un humilde aperitivo.] [in Spanish] ] .

These lupins are referred to as sweet lupins because they contain smaller amounts of toxic alkaloids than the bitter lupin varieties. Newly bred variants of sweet lupins are grown extensively in Germany; they lack any bitter taste and require no soaking in salt solution. The seeds are used for different foods from vegan sausages to lupin-tofu or baking-enhancing lupin flour. Given that lupin seeds have the full range of essential amino acids and that they, contrary to soy, can be grown in more temperate to cool climates, lupins are becoming increasingly recognized as a cash crop alternative to soy.

Three Mediterranean species of lupin, Blue Lupin, White Lupin and Yellow Lupin ("L. luteus") are widely cultivated for livestock and poultry feed. Both sweet and bitter lupins in feed can cause livestock poisoning. Lupin poisoning is a nervous syndrome caused by alkaloids in bitter lupins, similar to neurolathyrism. Mycotoxic lupinosis is a disease caused by lupin material that is infected with the fungus "Diaporthe toxica" [Williamson "et al." (1994)] ; the fungus produces mycotoxins called phomopsins, which cause liver damage.

ee also

* Lupinus luteus and Lupinus for Species and Genus information, and for other uses of the Lupin bean.

References

* (1919): " [http://www.swsbm.com/Ephemera/Sturtevants_Edible_Plants.pdf Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World]
* ( [1998] ): "Características y aplicaciones de las plantas: " [http://www.zonaverde.net/lupinusangustifolius.htm ALTRAMUZ AZUL ("Lupinus angustifolius")] [in Spanish] . Retrieved 2007-10-09.
* (1994): "Diaporthe toxica" sp. nov., the cause of lupinosis in sheep. "Mycological Research" 98(12): 1364-1365. [http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3348430 HTML abstract] [http://www.fao.org/agris/search/display.do;jsessionid=63506E5FCE4BB388561DC2A6D71C86C4?f=./1996/v2210/GB9516993.xml;GB9516993 ADRIS record]

* [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LUPIN Citation at plants.usda.gov Plant Profile] .
* [http://www.alcofa.com/tremocos_small.jpgImage of Lupini Beans] .